We're Live-Blogging Glamour's 2016 Women of the Year Summit

We don't have to remind you that this past week hasn’t been the easiest for many Americans. Many of us have spent the weekend slowly coming to grips with the fact that this won’t be the year where a woman assumes the mantle of President of the United States. Others have have voiced our frustration at the results of the election by participating in a wave of protests from coast to coast.

In the wake of so much divisiveness, it can be easy to lose heart. It's natural to want to seek direction from a woman with more experience or more smarts who could just tell us what to do next. But that's why now, more than ever, we need to lead ourselves.

It’s essential that we support and celebrate women—that we lead by example and raise each other up. Here at Glamour, we’re re-committing ourselves to fighting for a future where women have a seat at the leadership table and the ability to define their own personal fulfillment. Most of all, we’ll listen, and we'll listen hard. We’ll continue to believe that the universe bends toward good, and have faith that we still live in a nation that can value empathy and kindness over divisiveness and fear.

We may have spent the last week reeling, but today is Monday, and it’s time to get to work. There are still glass ceilings to shatter and barriers to break through. In the words of Leslie Knope, “Now we plan like mofos.”

To kick off, Glamour is hosting our first-ever Women of the Year Live Summit today, to be followed by our annual Women of the Year Awards tonight. Watch in real-time on Glamour's Facebook Live channel to be a part of every amazing moment as it happens.

Follow along with our live-blog here for exclusive interviews, behind-the-scenes details, and more.

Stay tuned...

3:00 P.M. PST: That's a Wrap!

That's it for the first-ever Women of the Year Summit! It was an incredibly inspiring day, and it's only going to get better with the Women of the Year Awards tonight. Now if you'll excuse us, we're going to practice our power poses until the ceremony. Thanks for tuning in!

Glamour's editor-in-chief Cindi Leive sat down for a heartfelt conversation with one of America's most beloved female leaders, former First Lady of California Maria Shriver. The two talked about how to embrace change in your own life and become stronger for it.

“I wish that someone [had told me] at 25 that you’re going to feel really strong, then you’re going to feel really insecure," said Shriver. "You’re going to think you know everything and then know nothing. That’s normal.” She explained that, in fact, you can change your mind, your career, your relationship at any age. "We live in a society that asks everyone, ‘What do you do?’ That makes people anxious a lot of the time," she said. "They get somewhere and they want to stay there even if they’re unhappy because they’re afraid of change."

Talking about her family's work in charity—from the Special Olympics, to Alzheimers awareness, to the Peace Corps—Shriver talked about fighting for the causes that mattered most to her. But she was also very honest about her family's successes, and how that can sometimes make her feel inadequate. "All my uncles ran for president," she said to laughs. But she said she used a "spiritual practice" that had her asking how she can use her own life—regardless of what those around her were doing—to impact change. “See yourself as an instrument of change, as a vehicle to make the world better,” she said.

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The conversation turned to the election—again—and Leive asked her about whether unity can be achieved after such a tumultuous election. Obviously, said Shriver, she came from a very liberal family. "I was raised to believe that Republicans were the enemy—then I married one," she said. "I met a lot of Republicans who wanted to do a lot of good in the world. Neither of [the parties] had a monopoly on goodness and neither one of them were what they cracked themselves up to be. They both had faults and they both had good people." After some soul-searching about why she was voting for the people she was voting for, she changed her voter registration to Independent—she even called those that decline to state "the fastest-growing party."

So when it comes to Donald Trump, Shriver is looking at the reasons why he was elected rather than placing blame. "It’s a time for listening and learning," she said. "Hearing what’s under a lot of these votes is pain. That’s one of the things I’ve discovered in my own journalism...the new face of poverty is working women with children...they’re struggling and they don’t feel people hear them."

She ended with moment of hope: "I try to take a moment like this and think what is the silver lining for all of us? What can we do to make our country better—men and women, boys and girls? I want this to be a great country for both of them."

2:20 P.M. PST: Ashley Graham Got Her Own Barbie and We Love It

We are so obsessed with this! Our 2016 Women of the Year honoree Ashley Graham designed her very own Barbie, which is as insanely gorgeous as she is and reflects her incredible work as a body activist. Graham went onstage for a video showing her trip to the Mattel factory to see them designing Barbie. "What I requested was that her thighs touched," Graham said in the video. "I asked for cellulite bit I'm not sure I'm going to get it."

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Then, back on the WOTY stage, her Barbie was unveiled live—and even Graham didn't know what to expect. "Her thighs touch!" she yelled excitedly, to much applause.

Check out more of what happened at the Barbie unveil over on our post!

1:30 P.M. PST: Invent Yourself and Your Social Media Will Follow

How do we survive and thrive as women who have to live online and in the real world? Modern Family star Ariel Winter, Instagram head of fashion partnerships Eva Chen, and Bumble CEO and founder Whitney Wolfe shared their experiences with online harassment, creativity, and how to stay true to yourself online and IRL.

Chen laid out early the dilemma that women, and young women in particular, face whenever they check a social media account. "[Instagram] is almost my daily log," she said, the place where she can share with followers what strikes her as beautiful, moving, or just interesting. Of course, that impulse also drives internet trolls into a state of rage if it means a woman is speaking her mind.

"The people who are writing something negative on your page clearly have something negative going on in their lives," Winter said of the online commenters who have body-shamed her since she was a kid. Wolfe also dealt with nastiness online; as a woman in tech, helping young women use the internet without having to navigate constant ugliness was a huge factor in the process that led her to found Bumble. "I had seen a lot of bullying on social media," Wolfe said, which led her to ask, "If this is happening to me, who only a few people are paying attention to, what happens to somebody who is on a bigger scale?”

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“I realized that that golden rule does not exist online. you are not held to that same standard as when there is a teacher in the room, or someone monitoring behavior," Wolfe continued. "If this generation is all about connecting digitally, then we need to change the way that takes place.”

12:00 P.M. PST: Christine Lagarde Gives the Ultimate Power Lunch

IMF Managing Director Christine Lagardge gave a keynote address at Glamour Women of the Year's "How She Did It" Power Lunch, and she shared some incredible advice for women who want to get everything they need out of their career. From talking about how she made time for her children despite a huge job, to figuring out when to walk away from a good opportunity that wasn't the right fit, Lagarde was truly inspiring.

Our favorite moment? "If you think that you’re going to feel miserable in any particular environment, don’t put up with it—just run. They don’t deserve you."

Actress and This Is Us star Chrissy Metz, Olympic fencer Ibtihaj Muhammad, and Safe Hands for Girls founder Jaha Dukureh seem like they couldn't be more different when it comes to their backgrounds and their choice of careers, but they have something very important in common: They know what it means to use their voices to impact change. Throwing Shade host Erin Gibson talked to these three inspiring women about how they got up when they were knocked down.

Muhammad kicked things off by talking about how she got into fencing when her mother saw that fencers could wear long sleeves and head coverings. "I was always hearing no," she said. "I always hated people telling me there were things I can't do."

Chrissy Metz, Erin Gibson, Jaha Dukureh, and Ibtihaj Muhammad

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Dukureh talked about her foundation's mission—to end female genital mutilation (FGM) by 2030. "This is like any other sexual violence that women go through," she said, and urged people to go to her foundation's website (which you can do here). Later, she explained that "women are not treated as human beings, we are only good for the pleasure of a man." FGM is a problem, one that is "older than Christianity, older than Islam," said Dukureh. And it's happening in the U.S. too.

The conversation moved to diversity, and once again—as will probably be the case throughout the Women of the Year Summit and Awards—talk turned to the last election. Muhammad talked about Donald Trump's Muslim ban. "I woke up on November 9 afraid, and I pride myself on being a really strong person," she said.

Metz, who was asked about her past struggled with weight, said that when it came to becoming an actress, she "never thought, 'I can't do it.' Because it's what I wanted to do." Later, when she talked about being asked to do an underwear scene for This Is Us, she felt conflicted at first. In the end, though, she said she realized, "I have to do this because I have to be vulnerable—not just for myself, but for everyone watching this who, no matter what size they are, feels inadequate." She decided to do the scene, and regrets nothing. "Yes, it was frightening, but I have to say it was so liberating!"

Dukureh revealed that she came to the U.S. at 15, for an arranged marriage. She realized that the only way to protect her daughter from the same fate was to stand up and speak out about it. She said that the fact that when she first started her work against FGM, she was the most hated person online in her community, especially because Muslim women are often discouraged from making their voices heard. Now, she said, she's one of the most celebrated—proof that cultures can change. And her children are proud of the work she's doing and even play videos of her at their schools (an admission that made most people onstage cry).

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Metz said that the reason she acts is to inspire people to prove that they can also change perceptions—something she feels is proven by her preence onstage with Muhammad and Dukureh. "I’m just a person trying to figure it out," she said. “I’m a work in progress.”

11 A.M. PST: A Discussion on Bridging the STEM Education Gap

Creative director Rebecca Minkoff, Black Girls Code founder and CEO Kimberly Bryant, and Danielle Brown, Intel human resources vice president and chief of diversity and inclusion officer, joined together for the panel "Your 21st Century Career: Why Every Woman Needs a Dose of STEM." They joined in a conversation about getting women involved in STEM education both early in life and mid-career, why the "tech bro" stereotype persists—and how we can topple it. Today and Access Hollywood host Natalie Morales moderated.

Bryant started out by answering a question about how to shatter the glass ceiling in science and technology career paths. "I don't even know if you get to the ceiling in many cases," she said. "I think some things are starting to change, but we still have a lot of work to do."

Regarding Silicon Valley's persistent male tech-bro image, Brown explained that it's not how Silicon Valley really is, but offered a piece of advice to women in tech: "We need to get out, be really visible—and our companies need to support us to be visible."

Kimberly Bryant, Rebecca Minkoff, and Danielle Brown

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Minkoff said that one way to broaden horizons at the individual level for women and people of color in tech is to seek out more than one mentor. "You have to find people who know what you don’t know, and it’s [often] not the highest person at the company...They’ll be teaching you things you didn’t even know you had a weakness in.”

All the women present agreed that there are serious representation issues in the science, technology, engineering, and math fields, and addressing them should be high on the agenda for activists. "We have to address this issue not just from a gender lens, but we need to address from a racial disparity lens as well," said Bryant. "We’ve seen a lot more talk about the problem over the past five years… and definitely more action, but more so action in terms of organizations...Now we really need to look at the cultures of the companies that I’m sending these girls into: How can the cultures change themselves? How can we break the culture [so] they can not only enter these roles but they stay?"

“There’s so much possibility, but it’s going back to, is it going to help you?" said Minkoff, about problem-solving for women in tech. "Is it going to give you something that worked?”

Brown added that tech more broadly is "truly an industry that benefits from all sorts of backgrounds."

As a piece of takeaway advice, Bryant put STEM in the context of the last election. "As women, I think we often look at one singular path to the final destination," she said. "I realized over the past couple of days, that I was put here to start this foundation to teach [young women] to lead at the time they need to become leaders.”

10 A.M. PST: Maureen Dowd, Dolores Huerta, and Lena Dunham Discuss the Election That Was and Where We Go From Here

The next panel sought to break down where women stand after this election, and featured Maureen Dowd, New York Times op-ed columnist and author of The Year of Voting Dangerously, actress, writer, and director Lena Dunham, and activist Dolores Huerta. Lizzie O'Leary, host of NPR's Marketplace Weekend, moderated.

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Dowd kicked things off, laying out exactly why she thought Donald Trump won the election. "It's the oldest story in the book," she said. "The Clinton campaign made a classic mistake of, a lot of their ads and a lot of their message was, 'Donald Trump is a bad guy." That was the wrong tack, she argued. "All of these rural voters wanted a Rottweiler to rip the face off of Washington. They looked past all of these things about him that the Clinton campaign was focusing on...If you don't take seriously when voters are in a change year, you're at a real loss."

Lena Dunham discussed directly how Trump's presidency could affect women for the next four years. "So many women are feeling scared, unsafe, ignored by the fact that someone who is openly a predator will soon be residing in the White House," she said bluntly. "That is a terrifying fact. It can’t be separated from his policy, his politics, and any issue because it cuts to the heart of how he feels about human beings. And women are human beings."

Dolores Huerta, Maureen Dowd, Lena Dunham, and Lizzie O'Leary

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Dunham also made a painful and poignant point about perceptions about the accusations against Trump, particularly following the leak of the Access Hollywood tape. "It took him talking about touching a white woman for us to finally go, ‘This guy seems pretty off,'" she said. "That was evidence of so many voters’ privileged view of what it means to be an American citizen. Everyone who didn’t have the privilege of being a college educated white voter knew that on a deep level already."

Huerta turned her first remarks to undocumented women and children. "They are absolutely in terror right now," she said. "Anybody who has crossed the border that’s undocumented could become a criminal. When [Republicans] talk about 3 million criminals, it’s not people who have committed felonies or hurt anybody—they’ve just crossed the borders without documents." She explained that this kind of poisonous rhetoric came from a fear of addressing hard issues. "All of us who think this is wrong have to do a lot of educational work in public, [in] private institutions, to start erasing the racism, misogyny, and homophobia that exists in our society," she said. "If we don't start doing this, we’re going to see a lot of Donald Trump's in our future."

Dunham also called for action, telling people to support at-risk organizations. "There is something so simple that you can do: Every organization that has been attacked needs your help." She cited Planned Parenthood, the ACLU, and even things as simple as protecting Muslim members of your community.

Later in the conversation, the audience had an opportunity to ask questions. Huerta cited voter suppression to account for low Latino voter turnout, and rejected the assertion that 30 percent of Latinos voted for Trump, saying new information suggested that it was more like 18 percent.

Another highlight? Kiran Gandhi, a musician who has worked as a drummer for M.I.A. and who is perhaps best-known for running the London Marathon on her period, asked about how to deal with the fact that this election made women feel valued only as sexual objects. "First of all, you're dope as fuck and I think we're all picking up on that," said Dunham, to laughs. "And it's comforting." Dunham reiterated that being objectified is the same as being told you don't matter, and that's a dangerous assertion to make on a national level.

Actress Nikki Reed also asked a question about grassroots organizing, and what to do next. Dunham pointed to people like Huerta as an example of "women who have transformed history through their own work." Huerta quoted slain labor organizer and activist Joe Hill: "Don't mourn. Organize."

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9 A.M. PST: Cindi Leive Talks to Powerful Women About What Happens When We Run the Show

Glamour's Editor-in-Chief Cindi Leive welcomes attendees to the Woman of the Year Summit with a few words of inspiration. "Some of the best mentors are your crew of women," she told the crowd. "You are all here in this room because you are a motivated, compassionate army of young women." In the spirit of extending that army, Leive told everyone to "commit to adding three new contacts before lunch and three in the afternoon."

She then introduced Anne Sweeney, former Disney Television Group President and member of the Netflix Board of Directors, to kick off the panel, "When a Woman Runs the Show: My First 30 Days." Sweeney told a story about how, at a dinner in New York, she overheard her name at a neighboring table of men. "Oh, I know Anne Sweeney," one of them said. "Don't worry, I know how to handle her." The moment, while dispiriting, gave Sweeney an idea. "Don't be angry," she said. "Listen. Learn from this." Her first lesson? "Never speak in a loud voice and drop names at a restaurant."

Jenna Lyons, J.Crew president and creative director, joined the stage next. "Remember," she told the crowd, "When you're a boss, every little thing counts."

It was a sentiment echoed by Marissa Mayer, Yahoo president and chief executive officer, who also reiterated the importance of listening. "When I arrived at Yahoo, it was during a turbulent period," she said. The two biggest lessons she learned? "Listening and removing barriers."

Then came Issa Rae, writer, producer, and actress on the HBO show Insecure. She told a story about shooting the pilot of her show and the challenge of trying to give it "a certain feel." There was one location she really wanted–Mercado, an Ethiopian restaurant—but her producing partner called and explained that it was a challenge to book. If she really wanted it, she'd have to put her foot down to make it happen. Though she was nervous, Rae brought it up at a meeting. "Hey, I just really want to shoot here," she told everyone present. "It means a lot to me, and I really want to make this work." Rae said everyone at the meeting got quiet for moment, and then told her they would make it happen. Inside, she said, she was thinking, "Holy shit! Being a boss is awesome."

Following the introductions, the women all sat down to discuss current events, maternity leave, and the challenges of being a woman in the workplace. "Something I learned from this past election is that [there is] this idea that women have to be serious and tough," Jenna Lyons said. "But I don’t agree. There is a way to lead and have fun and be gentle... Expectations are high, but it doesn’t have to be about being cold. I’m not so good at that."

On becoming a boss for the first time, Issa Rae got brutally honest. “I found I was wearing multiple hats that perhaps didn’t fit," she admitted. She recalled a past project, in which she was nervous to use too firm a touch with the team she was running. "I felt like I had one shot to get it right, and I felt I had to consider every option," she said. "But I ended up creating something that was voiceless. [I realized] I need to be secure in the story I want to tell." That project didn't get picked up, which became a turning point for her as a leader. "I had a moment while driving," she said. "'Oh my God, I'm me! No one sees the world like I do.' Creatives need to embrace that. It became easier to execute on my vision.”

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Though Leive cited the number that "only four percent of CEOs of Fortune 500 companies are women," Sweeney mentioned that the tide is clearly turning. "My mentors are now half my age," she said.

"How people perceive you has nothing to do with your title," added Jenna Lyons. "Oftentimes the people who are the most talented are just doing what they love. When you do what you love you don’t even realize what’s happening. You don’t check what time it is, you ask to do more becaase your’e interested and excited…that’s the thing that’s going to get you promoted—not just asking."

We started off Women of the Year with a breakfast honoring female Olympians and Paralympians. What can these elite athletes teach us about overcoming adversity and succeeding in the face of overwhelming odds? For Olympic Gold Medalist and World Cup Champion soccer player Alex Morgan, information is definitely power. "Through the last year or two fighting for equal pay, I have really realized that power is in sharing knowledge," she said. "Just look at all the influence we have in this room today."

Olympic fencer Ibtihaj Muhammad told us that the future is all about highlighting a diverse future. "In today’s climate, it’s so important to be a representation of inclusiveness. I’m so proud to rep Team USA and continue the conversation about representation and diversity and inclusion," Muhammad said.

While WNBA player Candace Parker is a powerful role model for young women, she shared with attendees that she didn't get where she is without following the lead of a powerful woman. "It’s not what happens in your life, it’s how you react to it," Parker said. "I get that knowledge through my late coach, Pat Summitt, who handled everything with a lot of class and a lot of grace and a lot of dignity."

Everyone at Glamour would like to extend a very special thank-you to Aerie, Barney’s New York, Bumble, Caterpillar Foundation, Clare V., Coach, Dyson Supersonic, eBay, Everything But The House (EBTH), Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, Getty Images, Intel, Kim Crawford, L’Oreal, Mattel, Microsoft Office, Rebecca Minkoff, SoulCycle, StubHub, Tory Burch Foundation, W Hollywood Hotel, and Zevia. Without them, Women of the Year would not have been possible.